My Exegesis explains the choices and the reasoning behind this web presence and fulfils part of assessment for Curtin University’s WEB101 module. I will show how the theme matches with the roles of the contributing nodes and online personality, and how my choices reflect the information discussed within this unit.
I chose Blogger as my central node as it had inbuilt tools for contributing nodes and external tools for which I wanted to incorporate. Blogger was first launched in 1999 by Pyra Labs, and was one of the earliest blog publishing tools (webhostingreport.com, The MWE Inc). From this, blogger was named one of the top 50 domains by number in 2007. For my blogger layout, I have added pages to include my “About Me” and “Exegesis” as to separate this information from my main post page. As I wanted my information, links, posts and photos to engage my readers not a background and logo, simplicity was main requirement for my central node and Blogger provided me with the best platform. Using nameckr.com I was able to determine which contributing nodes I could use with the username I wanted. I selected “Goalieshelmet” as my username as I feel it reflects the view of looking through the goalkeeper’s eyes, the theme to web presence I wanted to create. (Leaver, T. 2010)
For my contributing nodes, I chose Twitter, Flickr and Delicious. Each had qualities relevant to my blog, and all contributed in different ways. I wanted the tools to fill the gaps in my blog posts that I felt I could not fill by simply talking about hockey. Twitter allowed me to post from anywhere at anytime from my iPhone, Flickr images could be updated and posted as soon as they were uploaded, and I could post from the ground at my hockey game. But with all the information I provided I wanted to also allow for followers to see what other people thought about Hockey; Delicious gave me the ability to link to articles of a more mainstream view of the game, giving a background to the posts I was publishing.
Twitter allowed the ability to microblog on the go; I could post my feelings whilst I was at the ground, and release my nerves when I was unable to sleep the night before a match. I added a link to subscribe to my twitter account from my blog, linking to smaller but relevant posts between when I could access my computer. Twitter to me was a live feed of my thoughts and was true to how I felt at the time. Blog posts can be edited to change an idea or opinion, but when using twitter a post is uploaded and can not be edited, only deleted. For me, it changed what I posted not just by character limit but also by context. Twitter also allowed for the link-back to my central node as per a requirement for the assignment. (Leaver, T. 2010)
When I was at the ground, I took photos of our team preparing to play and during our mid-game huddle. Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) my central node displayed any new photos that I had uploaded to my flickr profile. My iPhone has the Flickr application, which allowed me to upload direct to my account from the hockey ground. Having my blog linked to my flickr account, I felt it expressed my thoughts into pictures.
Delicious provided the ability to showcase other people’s thoughts and views on Hockey, engaging other areas of information that I could not simply provide on my posts. I bookmarked a range of different links, providing information on where I buy my equipment to the recent Champions Trophy win by our Australian Men’s Hockey team in Germany. Delicious was acquired by Yahoo in 2005 and now has over 5 million users and 150 million bookmarked URL’s (authorstream.com, 2009). With this background, I found numerous bookmarks fitting to my theme and I was able to link some of my own.
Having tried varied layouts, this current layout fit the flickr photostream and my hockey club’s logo the best without crowding my blog posts. I wanted to show the pictures as an introduction, so that they can see my passion for the game and visualise my hockey team. It was also to hold the readers attention, as the average time spent on the internet per page is only 27 seconds! (J Nielson & Loranger, 2006) The flickr photos were taken by my partner, to help promote the club and attract new players. From each photo you can see different aspects of the game and my team mates. I selected the background picture from generic template in the blogger design section. I feel it reflected where I started my love for hockey – the grass field and the beautiful sky which reminded me of the country town ground where I played for the first time. For my links, such as Twitter and my About Me page, I wanted them at eye level without dominating the space as I wanted my blog posts to be central with as much room as possible. I found if I had too much information above it or with panels on each side, it was detracting from the posts.
I wanted my blog to be personal, showing my view of hockey and goalkeeping. Keeping with the personal theme, I used first-person language and engaged with my posts as if it were my own diary. I set out my blog to encourage social interaction, by means of comments, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and links to my contributing nodes. Field hockey is not a popular sport in Australia, and I feel the more promotion by any means could boost the sports profile and encourage more people to play. I considered each contributing node to ensure I would get the greatest exposure of my blog in the social networking realm. All aspects of my blog, from my club’s logo to the colour scheme were considered to obtain maximum impact and interest from my audience. I hope with this blog, I will encourage others to play hockey and maybe even don the goalkeeping helmet.
Word Count: 1027
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References:
Anderson, P. (2007). What is web 2.0? Ideas, technologies and implications for education, 60
authorstream.com [Web Page] eswarijuly10. Overview of Delicious Website. 2009. http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/eswarijuly10-236524-overview-delicious-website-new-tecnology-entertainment-ppt-powerpoint/
Leaver, T. (2010). Module 1.0 What's in a Name? Unit WEB101 Study Package. Retrieved from http://lms.curtin.edu.au
Leaver, T. (2010). Module 2.3 Social Networks Unit WEB101 Study Package. Retrieved from http://lms.curtin.edu.au
Nielsen, J., & Loranger, H. (2006). Prioritizing web usability: New Riders Publishing Thousand Oaks, CA, USA.
Webhostingreport.com. [Web page]. The history of Blogger. http://www.webhostingreport.com/learn/blogger.html
